We are excited to introduce Thalea Torres, the Alumni Program Associate at AI4ALL. In her role, she will help grow the AI4ALL alumni program, Changemakers in AI, which aims to support AI4ALL alumni on their professional and academic journeys in AI.
Thalea recently received her Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University with a focus and minor in public policy. She brings to AI4ALL a wealth of experience in youth development, direct practice, program management and development, research, and policy analysis. She has worked with a variety of populations including high school health education and workforce, foster youth and families, adults and children with disabilities, and English language learners abroad.
Thalea is passionate about working towards equity and justice for marginalized groups, and believes that AI and tech are areas with incredible potential for positive social impact.
What motivated you to join AI4ALL?
AI4ALL fuses so many of my interests: career and workforce development, youth, education, tech diversity and inclusion. It is wild to imagine that I was able to find such an incredible organization that fuses all of these things and is such a match for me.
I think the greatest motivator, though, is that AI4ALL is very critical and reflective of the work they do. So, aside from having an incredible mission that aims to create diversity and inclusion in a space that does and will continue to have incredible power over all of our lives,
I chose AI4ALL because I have seen many examples of the organization reflecting on the way they’re fulfilling their mission and being thoughtful in their approach.
How does your background in social work intersect with your work at AI4ALL?
To me, social work is all about doing work for and in partnership with marginalized communities towards a goal of social justice and social equity. I believe that social work is expansive. I have experience working with a variety of marginalized communities, whether it be foster youth, youth with barriers to employment, the 50+ community, or youth and adults with disabilities. I’ve worked in many contexts where there’s a workforce access or an educational barrier for these groups. For me, I think AI4ALL is a natural fit in terms of working to create access, social equity, inclusion — I believe the goals [of social work and AI4ALL] are very similar.
What are some of the bigger issues you see in this space regarding getting underrepresented people into AI?
I think we need to make sure that the ways diversity and inclusion in AI are being addressed are holistic. It’s critical to reflect on the experience of entering a field with such a dominant culture — it’s not enough to simply build pathways into AI without also providing social and emotional supports that extend from high school through career. Companies, organizations, and the AI field overall need to examine how they are working to be more inclusive. We need to get everybody on board with collaborating to change the culture around dominant communities in the AI space. I think building community and common understanding of the goal in this conversation is most important.
Who were your role models growing up? Do you have any role models now?
My role models growing up are the same role models I have now: my parents. My dad immigrated from Nicaragua when he was younger. He experienced many things in adjusting to life in the United States as a person of color, an immigrant, not knowing the language when he first arrived, and just trying to create a life for himself here. He went on to be very successful in construction as a project manager, superintendent, and foreman. Both of my parents experienced discrimination in their roles. My father being the leader and a person of color in different contexts was not what was expected by some of the people he has encountered in his work. My mom is a woman who went into construction. She experienced an incredible amount of sexism. What was really inspiring for me and has become even more inspiring as time has gone on, is that they banded together, and now they own their own construction company and are paving their own way.
Watching them time and time again, even as owners of a company many years old now, still experiencing discrimination — these kinds of things continue. I’ve seen that narrative throughout my life. I continue to hear the different ways that my parents have managed it and pushed past it to still have success and deliver quality service.
Seeing their experience inspired me to want to do something about the lack of inclusion and diversity in any space. It has also inspired me to push through any type of adversity that I may experience as well.
What are your favorite things to do in your free time?
I’m very into health, fitness, and food — an unfortunate combination! I love yoga, barre, pilates, and cardio kickboxing. Also, I recently became plant-based, so I’ve been trying all the plant-based restaurants I can. I’m not the strongest plant-based eater yet, so my true favorite thing to do is locating and trying every baked good, bakery, and dessert in the nearby area.
About Thalea
Thalea Torres is the Alumni Program Associate at AI4ALL, where she hopes to build and support the alumni network, Changemakers in AI, with career trajectories and continued engagement in AI for alumni. She is passionate about working towards equity and justice for marginalized groups, and believes that AI and tech are areas for incredible social impact.
Thalea received her Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University with a focus and minor in public policy. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. She has a background in youth development, direct practice, program management and development, research, and policy analysis. She has worked with a variety of populations including high school health education and workforce, foster youth and families, adults and children with disabilities, and English language learners abroad. Most recently she served as a Research Fellow for SAFElab, Columbia Population Research Center at Columbia University, where she collaborated with MIT and youth at the Brownsville Community Justice Center to create an immersive simulation training intervention for social media surveillance practices.
Thalea also loves fitness, superhero movies, and identifying every bakery within a 10-mile radius.